Sunshine Coast weather: Storms hammer Beerwah, hinterland areas

Sunshine Coast hinterland residents are counting the cost after a wild tempest battered the region overnight with more wild weather tipped to roll in Thursday afternoon.

Beerwah residents in midst of a clean up are braced for a second round of severe weather similar to the “walls of ice’ that ripped through the hinterland suburb on Thursday morning.

An intense storm cell blasted the Sunshine Coast hinterland overnight Wednesday and continued to batter the region Thursday morning as it powered over the hinterland to the coastal strip dumping almost 50mm of rain in an hour in coastal suburbs.

Now, the weather bureau has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for south east Queensland, including the Sunshine Coast area for Thursday and says a supercell could strike the region early Thursday afternoon.

Beerwah resident Noel Barrie was in Brisbane when the storms unleashed and caved in part of the roof to his North St home.

Mr Barrie received a frantic phone call from his neighbour about 4am telling him the large silky oak had come down onto his property.

The clean up starts for Beerwah resident Noel Barrie following Thursday morning’s severe thunderstorms. Photo: Patrick Woods.

The tree was one of hundreds that had been felled in the suburb from the violent storms, now the residents are nervously awaiting another supercell approaching.

Mr Barrie said his roof was leaking above the veranda making him anxious about what was to come next.

Beerwah third generational farmer Brett Newell feared the storms had claimed half his avocado and lychee crops.

Mr Newell said it was the second time his crops had been wiped out in four years.

“All the avocados are on the ground,” Mr Newell said.

“We can’t get the tractors into them because the ground is too waterlogged.”

Beerwah’s Joel Newell with a massive tree felled from overnight storms. Photo: Patrick Woods.

Residents Crystal and Dan Brown and their children Hudson, 3 and Annabella, 2, grabbed blankets and sheltered in the bathroom of their Dawson St home about 3.30am Thursday for about 20 terrifying minutes while the carnage unfolded.

“I remember holding Hudson and he was shaking, I was scared and so was Dan,” Mrs Brown said.

“We looked at the radar and it showed this black thing was coming at us.

The clean up starts for hard hit Beerwah residents following Thursday morning’s severe thunderstorms. SES personal Dave Bethune and Andrew Kraut. Picture: Patrick Woods

“We knew the bathroom or the shed was the safest place to hide. We were freaked out.”

Their family home was somehow not damaged however their five vehicles caught in the middle of the tempest were.

Their backyard trampoline was flung about 15m into their fence where it crumpled in half.

“It was really intense,” Mrs Brown said.

“The grass was covered in hail but we are lucky nothing hit the house.”

Former Townsville resident Stuart Woods, 27, had only moved to Beerwah three weeks prior and had never experienced hailstorms.

He said it was similar to ex-tropical cyclone Yasi.

“It was like walls of ice coming down, scary stuff,” he said.

Residents were emerging from their homes Thursday morning to assess the damage as SES crews got to work.

A house on North St, Beerwah, has been impacted by the storms with a tree coming down on part of its roof while other residents are reporting several trees down in yards and smashed windows.

Stuart Woods starts the clean-up in Beerwah on Thursday. Picture: Patrick Woods

There were unconfirmed reports of a tornado-like event in the hinterland overnight as part of the powerful storm cells.

Energex crews were responding to more than 80 fallen power lines and Telstra towers had also been impacted with residents urged to stay home if possible on Friday.

Roads were closed including Steve Irwin Way while schools were closed and flash flooding broke out across the region just days after the Sunshine Coast and Noosa were inundated.

Forecasters have warned of a supercell system likely to hit Thursday afternoon with the entire southeast Queensland on alert.

Conditions were expected to remain unstable throughout Friday as well.